Excelsior?

Taiwan's recently completed Taipei Tower, at a height of 508 meters, is said to be the tallest skyscraper in the world. (Converted into US customary units, it measures 1,666.66666666 feet -- I'll let religious fundamentalists ponder what all those sixes might mean.)

As a kid, such architectural achievements made a great impression on me. I was thrilled to visit the observation deck of the Empire State Building, for example, and look down upon all the ant-like people and toy cars below. More recently, I've become somewhat ambivalent about tall buildings, with reason. (I live across the river from lower Manhattan.)

Where will it all end? The current plans for New York's "ground zero" are to build -- you guessed it -- the tallest building in the world there. This will only encourage even taller buildings to be built elsewhere, of course. Maybe someday we'll be able to take an elevator from street level to Earth orbit.

My wife says all of these super towers are just national phallic symbols.